Herring season starts well

The Atlanto-Scandian herring season got off to a good start, according to Guðlaugur Jónsson, skipper of pelagic vessel Venus. Processing the last mackerel delivered by Víkingur was completed at HB Grandi’s pelagic factory in Vopnafjörður last weekend and now it’s all about processing herring.

‘We’re into our third proper herring trip and the first ones were 900 and 1000 tonne trips. Apart from the poor weather conditions we’ve been experiencing, the outlook is good. Yesterday was no use to us for fishing and the weather didn’t improve until this morning. It’s forecast to be rough again tonight, so the weather isn’t exactly doing us any favours,’ he said yesterday as Venus was fishing at the outer edge of the Héraðsflói Deep.

The number of pelagic boats fishing for herring has increased as many have now finished their mackerel quotas.

The herring that has been landed is excellent quality raw material, according to factory manager Magnús Róbertsson.

‘This is very good herring with a 350-360 gramme average weight. There were no problems switching over to herring production. We have graders already set up for mackerel and herring, and the processing line is the same,’ he said, commenting that he hopes that Atlanto-Scandian herring production will last them the next three weeks.